Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Seeing Through American Sheepskins

If Washington decides to continue attempting to boost Tsvangirai's image, for the purpose of destroying the inclusive Government, their rhetoric purporting concern for the welfare of Zimbabweans will be met with due derision.

The Herald
By Obi Egbuna
On May 10, 2010 the National Democratic Institute presented Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai with the annual Averell Harriman Democracy Award.
Recipients of this honour must meet the following criteria: sustained commitment, moral integrity, and engagement in the political process and recognised efforts that require solidarity.
Candidates should represent larger political movements and lastly must be connected to NDI's work.
PM Tsvangirai received the award from former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who currently serves as NDI's chairperson, which provides her a platform to exert significant political influence as a private citizen.
Before presenting PM Tsvangirai with the award, Albright described him as a "courageous democratic leader of our time".
In his remarks, Prime Minister Tsvangirai said: "As African leaders we must end the conspiracy of silence that has allowed repression to continue unchecked."
The premier went on to say that, "the reality is that thousands of Zimbabweans have suffered ever worse hardships in our struggle for a free society and dignity, and these Zimbabweans remain committed and determined to continue the peaceful fight until our country is truly democratic".
While PM Tsvangirai might be basking in the glory of receiving the honour, it is critical to determine the persona behind the award, Harriman.
If the Prime Minister and his staff had done even casual research, they would have discovered that, in addition to being Secretary of Commerce under the Truman administration, Harriman was a Senior Partner of the banking business that financed Hitler and the Nazi Party in its early days.
The name of the business was called Brown Brothers Harriman & Co and served as the monetary pipeline to Hitler.
It was arranged by Fritz Thyssen along with George Herbert Walker and his son in law Prescott Bush, the father of 41st US President George H W Bush and grandfather of the 43rd US President George W Bush.
There is a very naked irony in all this especially when earlier this decade, it was President Mugabe and Zanu-PF that were compared to Hitler and the Nazi Party because of the historic land reclamation programme.
Biographical information available on Herriman reveals that he belonged to two secret societies, Skull and Bones at Yale University and another one called the Knights of Phytias.
Herriman even had close ties to Irving Brown, a CIA agent who was then in charge of the AFL-CIO's International Relations Division.
Another important point is that approximately 50 percent of the National Endowment for Democracy's funding, goes to the NDI's international division, the Centre for International Private Enterprise, the International Republican Institute and the American Centre for Labour Solidarity.
Because PM Tsvangirai has repeatedly stated that no Zimbabwean has a monopoly on patriotism, he should certainly understand the best way to determine one's character, is by the friends and enemies they make in their lifetime.
In a word, PM is in for public scrutiny and his apparent blindness to the ugly side of Washington, which his acceptance of the supposed honourable award mirrors, is most unfortunate.
This brings into question what were his motives for boycotting Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Zimbabwe for the annual International Trade Fair in Bulawayo, while appearing extremely cosy in the company of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or President Barrack Obama.
The fact Prime Minister Tsvangirai used his second Washington visit in less than a year, to present Roy Bennett as a liberator of Zimbabwe, shows a blatant disregard for our ancestors who shed countless drops of blood for Zimbabwe in particular and Africa in general to be truly sovereign, fighting against the likes of Bennett.
If the Western media continue to take a sensationalist approach when discussing Bennett's court case, they are guilty of insulting and underestimating the intelligence of the international community.
Any attempts by Western journalists to make President Mugabe and Zanu-PF anti-white and afraid of Bennett's "mass appeal" in Zimbabwe, are going to cause major embarrassment to the Tsvangirai faction of the MDC. As long as he yearns for the days of white privilege Bennett is his own worst enemy.
The members of MDC-T like Minister Sekai Holland who is in charge of their policy and ideology branch, should clearly understand that any attempt to portray Bennett in the same vein as whites like Timothy Stamps (President Mugabe's Health advisor), national hero Guy Clutton Brock or Father Michael Traber, is to tarnish Zimbabwe's rich history.
The US-EU alliance would love nothing more than to see Bennett sworn in as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, because it provides him a platform to sabotage the land reclamation programme.
They hope this appointment will forever wipe Bennett's slate clean and his Rhodesian history.
Since the end of the Cold War, CIA assassinations of African leaders, and bloodthirsty coups staged by mercenaries on the US Government's payroll, are no longer viable options.
What this means in relationship to Zimbabwe is that Washington must depend on its ace in the hole, the Council of Foreign Relations due to the political muscle and influence it has exerted on both the Democratic and Republican Party since it began in 1921.
While Washington functions from the understanding that it would be detrimental to make Zimbabwe or any African country front and centre of US Foreign policy especially under Obama's tenure, there is overwhelming evidence that the Council of Foreign Relations are extremely worried about President Mugabe and Zanu-PF.
Their regime change agenda is well documented.
In October of 2007 while Michelle Gavin who currently runs the Africa desk of the National Security Council, was an adjunct fellow at CFR, she wrote a journal entitled "Planning for Post-Mugabe Independence."
Other US officials, whose pro-Tsvangirai stance is hardly a secret, that are members of CFR include, General Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Ambassadors Johnnie Carson and Susan Rice and Congressman Donald Payne to name a few.
The CFR also extends membership to private corporations, and has among its ranks groups like Goldman Sachs Inc, Chevron Corporation, and the Exxon-Mobil Corporation.
The CFR states their Africa programme has a special focus on Nigeria and South Africa because of their size and strategic importance.
This explains why Obasanjo and Yar'Adua's arms were consistently bent on the Zimbabwe question, and why the US-EU alliance want to give the impression that they won President Zuma on Zimbabwe.
What President Mugabe and Zanu-PF have consistently conveyed to their citizens throughout the decade, is that they should never underestimate the international support the country enjoys for their cause as well as their courage and vision.
It should be noted that Zimbabwe's foreign policy and support on the African continent have caused many sleepless nights to the individuals that President Obama depends on for insight and briefings and it appears many more lie ahead.
When President Mugabe announced the Look East Policy a few years ago and went on to receive an honorary degree in China, we can be assured US Foreign Policy experts like Madeline Albright turned back the clock, and remembered when W E B DuBois, at the age of 91, stood before Mao Tse Tung in Peking and said: "Turn from the West and your slavery and humiliation for the last 500 years and face the rising sun."
When President Ahmedinejad was in Zimbabwe voices in Washington trembled over the possibility of Zimbabwe's vast uranium reserves serving as a repository for a nuclear enrichment programme that will serve as a catalyst for world peace.
This gives Africans the enthusiasm to use our fingertips and write in the sand death to Africom, and other attempts to continue to pollute our water and land with US bombs given American obsession with genocide and war.
Africans were pleased to hear the Zanu-PF chairman unapologetically saying that Zimbabwe intends to use its diamonds for the purpose of busting the sanctions.
One of the most disturbing trends in connection to hostile diplomacy towards Zimbabwe, are the attempts to exclude President Mugabe from forums, to discuss the country's challenges and future.
We recently saw Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara under attack for using connections with the Forum Of Young Global Leaders to ensure President Mugabe was part of a symposium entitled The Future of Zimbabwe alongside Prime Minister Tsvangirai and Mutambara himself.
This demonstrates that Mutambara is committed to the pledge he made two years ago, that he would fight to ensure Zimbabwe had "One Flag, One Voice and One Vision".
Zimbabwe and Africa anxiously wait for PM Tsvangirai's denunciation of US-EU attempts to keep using MDC-T to sabotage the inclusive Government.
When Prime Minister Tsvangirai stands next to President Mugabe in Zimbabwe, he talks of fighting to end sanctions, however when he comes to Washington he allows Zim's enemies to portray him as an angel surrounded by devils.
We recently saw Senators Kerry, Issakson and Feingold use Zimbabwe to practice a political version of the story the Three Musketeers by introducing legislation that is supposed to represent relaxed and flexible sanctions.
The timing of this legislation comes on the heels of an appeal crafted by grass roots organisations, that uncompromisingly called for the lifting of US-EU sanctions once and for all.
The new sanctions bill is a continuation of US imperialism trying to pull wool over the eyes of Africans worldwide committed to ending imperialism in all its guises.
If Washington decides to continue attempting to boost Tsvangirai's image, for the purpose of destroying the inclusive Government, their rhetoric purporting concern for the welfare of Zimbabweans will be met with due derision.

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